Field guide app out now

There are no angry birds in Field Guide to Victorian Fauna, the museum’s new free app for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Instead, crazy-coloured snakes, critically endangered species, state faunal emblems, stinging jellies and a Baggy Pants Frog are among the animals included in the first release.

A screenshot from MV's Field Guide to Victorian Fauna.Source: Museum Victoria

The app lets you explore useful and interesting information about each species including: identification, biology, distribution, diet, habitat, scientific classification and endangered status. Wherever you are – a forest, a desert, a rocky shore, at Ararat or Apollo Bay – you’ll be able to find information on more than 700 animals at the swipe of your finger.

And, in a first for the museum, the code for the app is being released as open source. This means that museums and organisations worldwide can take their own data and build their own local field guide, too.

Developer Simon Sherrin and designer Simon O’Shea have built the app based on the Biodiversity Snapshots field guide, which was created for schools by museum sciences staff. In doing so, they’ve made this excellent resource available to anyone with an iDevice, not just school students. And this is just the beginning. We’re preparing more animals every day so that the app will span more of Victoria’s rich biodiversity.

Simon and Simon. These guys are developers, so we can't show their faces on the web.Image: Nicole AlleySource: Museum Victoria

Field Guide to Victorian Fauna can be downloaded free from the iTunes App Store. Simon Sherrin will also present the app at several conferences and meetings in the USA in coming weeks. It’s the second in the museum’s developing portfolio of apps which began in 2010 with Please touch the exhibit.

Is your favorite Victorian animal included in the app? If not, let us know what it is in the comments, and why it should be included in a future update of the field guide.

UPDATE: The Android version is now available from Google Play. Hooray!

Comments (79)

Hi Jeanette - the app does contain many audio files of vocalisations of birds, frogs and some mammals, just tap the icon shaped like a speech bubble with a musical note in it to select any associated audio file

Hope this helps

Cameron
27 July, 2013 10:17

Now that an Android version is available, is there plans to port it to windows phone. This should be fairly simple to port. I hope it is planned.

Hi Cameron, I'm afraid there are no plans to create a Windows version of the MV Field Guide to Victorian Fauna app. However, we are in the process of developing Field Guide apps for every other state and territory in Australia (for both iOS and Android devices).

Nicole Kearney
13 June, 2013 12:20

We are pleased to announce that the MV Field Guide to Victorian Fauna app is now available in the Google Play store (for Android devices). We have also recently released an upgrade of the Apple app (available now in the iTunes store). The app now contains over 730 species and has 86 new animal calls. You can read more about the new releases of the MV Field Guide app here.

I work at a child care center in Melbourne and we love this app. The kids were interested in birds but the bird poster just wasn't cutting it. We downloaded this app and the kids love the interactive side of it with the great photos and the bird noises. Well done MV!!!

Hi Katie, It’s coming! The MV Field Guide app will be launched on Google Play for Android devices in early 2013. We’re also working on 6 new field guide apps, one for each state/territory in Australia. And we’ll be delivering several significant updates to the existing MV Field Guide over the next 12 months – new species, improved design and some cool new functions. Stay tuned... (and a very Merry Christmas to you!).

Tony
18 October, 2012 20:06

Howdy Museum Vic. The kids love the app - any idea how the android development is coming along? Many thanks, Tony

Great news about the non apple versions. Keep up the good work.
As a keen user of field guides, would really love to see the ability to add user notes, pictures and maps - this is the major shortcoming of the birding app I use.

It's such fantastic news that you're producing an Android version! I first discovered it at work during an iPad training session, and it's honestly the app I'm most excited about getting on my shiny new phone. I check at least every couple of weeks to see if it's been released (no pressure!) - happy coding :-D

Wonderful app - I've downloaded it onto all of the school's ipads and its used across the school prep to 12. Please, please, people who funded this wonderful project - put the money into one on plants too.

We've checked with our app experts, and we think instead of downloading the app 'proper' (from the iTunes app store), you may have downloaded the source code - this won't show up as an icon on your phone or iPad, as this is the 'back end' programming, which we've made available here for other programmers to use how they wish. To dowload the operable app, go to the iTunes app store.

Hi, I am going to show my ignorance here, but I have downloaded this app and installed it successfully on my iPhone. But how do I access it? No shortcut has been created despite the app listed in the 'App Store'. Any suggestions?

Hi Bobble, thanks for your comments. The Field Guide app was originally released only for i-devices (iPhones, iPod touch and iPads) as this was what we could manage with the funds and in-house developer skills. We have received a number of enquiries about getting the Field Guide released for Android devices. We’re pleased to announce that we have received a grant from the Federal Government under the Inspiring Australia program that will allow us to create a version of the Field Guide for Android devices. We anticipate releasing this later in 2012.

As well as creating the Android version, the new grant will allow us to address another common feedback comment – “can you do one for Queensland?” or “I live in NSW, is there an app coming for us?” Using the Inspiring Australia grant, we will work in collaboration with six other Museums around the country to create a series of apps for animals right around Australia. These apps will have a similar format and presentation to the existing app, will also be free, and will be released for both i-devices and for Android devices. The new apps are due to be created over the next year and we plan to have them all delivered by December 2013.

Hi everyone,Great news! Museum Victoria will be expanding the Field Guide app, making it available on more devices. It will also provide State and Territory specific versions, and all for free thanks to the Unlocking Australia's Potential grant program. More information will be provided on the MV website in the near future, so watch this space...!

Hi there, am enjoying the app. On May 30, 2011 you said an update was close. Has that happened yet?
To those who think the lack of an Android app is unfair, let's be thankful that there is any app at all. MV weren't required by law to make an app, but they did anyway and didn't even charge for it.

Hi George, We don't have plans to release an Android version of the Field Guide as we do not have the in-house resources to do so. We have released the code for the app as Open Source. We hope another organisation with Android development skills will create an Android version of the builder. If that occurs, we will definitely consider publishing the Field Guide as an Android app. For the documentation for the Open Source code and the blog that goes with it click here.

This app is amazing! I really think it needs to be promoted a little as I only discovered this by coincidence, but very very happy that I have found it. A suggestion for the future would be to allow it to become an open source platform in which a wikipedia like community can form i.e. people can upload photos of fauna and flora, input information, report sightings, and build the database up and up! This is by far the best app I have seen in a long time! Congratulations.

I think it is a disgrace that taxpayer's money is being spent to develop something only for certain people in the community (iPhone owners). The argument that you do not have the funds and the developer used the project for "personal development" is very weak. If you can allow your developer to spend time developing this for iPhones then you should allow her/him to get the experience on Android as well, which is, as stated earlier the more common platform. You developed the app almost a year ago so you have had plenty of time to turn it into an Android app. It seems the ABC are also only developing for Apple.

I really like your field guide app and am using it in South Australia. There is plenty of scope for developing this sort of tool nationwide or other regions. It would be rather nice to see a similar app for plants in Australia. Thanks for making the code open source. The link didn't work since it does not contain the domain, the following link does work http://museumvictoria.com.au/discoverycentre/mv-field-guide-app/blog/aug-2011/

Thanks for letting us know about the broken link – it should work correctly now.

Discovery Centre
26 October, 2011 14:28

We have had many enquiries about whether we will be releasing the Field Guide to Victoria Fauna as an Android app. The Field Guide was developed fully in house at Museum Victoria. Our developer used the project as an opportunity for professional development, to extend and develop skills in writing code for a native app. We chose to write for iOS devices as we had to make a decision one way or another. We are very aware that there is interest in the community to have the app also available as an Android app but, currently simply don’t have the developer resources in house to make it happen.

We have since released the code for the app as Open Source, in the hope that someone in the developer community will port the code over to Android. No one has taken up the challenge so far.

For the documentation for the Open Source code and the blog that goes with it click here.

This is fast becoming one of my favourite new apps. I'm showing it off to everybody! It's a great resource for finding out more about the animals living around me in Melbourne. Can't wait to use it next time I'm in the country, too!

I have just bought an ipad and am enjoying your app immensely but i too cannot hear any sounds at all. Other apps work with sound. Do I need to have an apple sound program loaded on the ipad ? Any help greatly appreciated.

Hi Glenn. The field guide is only available as an app for iPhone and iPad. If you wish to run it on a computer, the closest thing is the Biodiversity Snapshots field guide but this requires you to be online to use it.

we are now close to the first update for the app which will include additional species like the ones mentioned above so keep an eye out or keep the comments coming about what you’d like to see in the app

Hi - I agree with all the above - it is a great app. A few interesting omissions that occur to me - the Red Tailed Cockatoo, Great White Shark, Giant Gippsland Worm. These seem to me to be iconic Vic fauna - any reason they are not included?

Had a quick look on an i-colleague's device, and it seems very handy. A real pity this isn't available on non-apple platform, otherwise would use it with my students - I can't in conscience use or recommend a resource that would disadvantage students who don't own or can't afford an i-device.

Hi thanks for the great app! It is fabulous but just one thing. You do not have any seahorses listed only the weedy seadragon. When you do an update could you please include them in it? Thanks again for an unbelievably great app :)

Great App agree with above coments that a flora guide would be great. Mostly I want to appeal for the field guide's to be made avaiable for Android and Windows phones as well. There are many of us who have abandoned Apple's monopolist philosophy and market minupulation

Currently, we don't have plans to release an Android version of the Field Guide as we do not have the in-house resources to do so. We will be releasing the source code for the Field Guide builder by the end of June. Our hope is that another organisation with Android development skills will create an Android version of the builder. If that occurs, we will definitely consider publishing the Field Guide to Victorian Animals as an Android app.

Fantastic app! I recently went to UK to see my sister and she had a paper field guide similar in concept to this but this just blows everything else away. Having real photos is fantastic when trying to identify various birds, insects etc is brilliant. Also love the audio for the birds as it is so hard to try and distinguish a call from a written description. Coming from UK myself and not growing up here with instilled knowledge it is wonderful to be able to put names to flora and fauna. I would love it if trees and flowers could also be added. For future development it would be great to have field notes that one could add as to where and when various species had been seen or heard. Great job! This app has to be one of the best in the world and to be able to carry this guide around in one's pocket as part of the phone is awesome. On the iPad it is especially brilliant. Keep up the great work!

Great work everyone. I downloaded this and had a great time exploring all the beasties. The coverage of marine invertebrates was particularly impressive, as was all the frog and bird calls (although I would have liked to have more audio - eg. owls which you often hear rather than see - I'm sure they're in the pipeline). Did have one issue where the app froze for a bit on one of the images, but it sorted itself out after a minute or two. Oh, and one other suggestion would be to have scale bars on the images for insects - I had to go the descriptions to get the dimensions which was a bit fiddly when trying to work out what a bug was. Overall, a really top job and I can't wait for more animals to be added to the app. And brilliant that you are open sourcing the app code - should be more of that!

This is an amazing app.Found out about it via Twitter. Downloaded and explored it today and will be using it in Art Classes with students tomorrow. Congratulations to all concerned with the production.A wonderful resource. I'll be spreading the word.

WOW - I have been looking for such a guide for a long time - fantastic photos, information and so easy to navigate. You have done a magnificent job. I will be sharing with all my students and fellow teachers in Victoria.

Awesome job! What a relief that Simon and Simon didn't choose the image of the Baggy Pants Frog for their glamour shot! My 6 year old is downloading the app now (as 6 year olds know how to do these sorts of things)!

Hey folks this is a fabulous app, great work and thanks for all the hard work in getting it together. Hopefully there will be regular updates and a flora and grasses and other similar apps to follow, (once you set the bar so high, the expectations grow correspondingly :).